The invention relates to a device in the form of a rotary thermolysis reactor and a method for operating a reactor of this kind in an arrangement for the thermal decomposition of by-products and waste.
DE 10 2008 058 602 A1 describes a moving-bed gasifier which comprises a carburetor chamber with a carburetor free space and a carburetor base, with the carburetor free space being surrounded by a carburetor jacket, and at its one, closed end it has a synthesis gas outlet and by its second, open end it is connected via the carburetor jacket with the carburetor base.
The interior of the carburetor base is designed as a carburetor pot into which a feed unit and at least one supply duct lead.
The carburetor pot comprises a recessed bottom opposite to the carburetor chamber that ends in a central chute.
Furthermore, according to DE 10 2008 058 602 A1 agitators are provided which are rotatably mounted in the carburetor pot by an agitator shaft that is surrounded by a delivery device. The carburetor pot encloses with the carburetor jacket an isolation chamber through which the feed unit, the supply duct, the central chute and the agitator shaft with conveyor device, which is supported by the carburetor base jacket, are guided.
In the carburetor chamber, a carburetor dome is provided in such a manner that a gap is generated between the carburetor dome and the carburetor jacket and/or the carburetor pot.
DE 10 2009 007 768.5 discloses a thermolysis reactor with an outer jacket and an inner jacket that form a double jacket, with the inner jacket being surrounded by the outer jacket so that a gap is generated between the inner jacket and the outer jacket; the double jacket comprises a feed unit, a discharge unit, at least one gasifying agent inlet and a distributing unit, and the inner jacket encloses an interior chamber with covers closing its ends.
The gap is closed to the environment at the ends of the double jacket formed by the inner jacket and the outer jacket, the covers support a shaft with a heat carrier located in the gap and the shaft, and the shaft is centrally mounted in the covers and carries a conveying device.
According to DE 10 2009 007 768.5, this thermolysis reactor is used for carrying out a method in which the thermolysis reactor is placed in an inclined position so that the discharge device is located above the feed device.
The shaft is driven and a heated liquid heat transfer medium is produced and moved in the shaft and the double jacket.
This liquid heat transfer medium is passed by way of the guide-flow in the gap, and the material to be treated is guided by the conveyor device from the feed device to the discharge device and heated by means of a supplied gasifying agent during this transport.
This technical solution has the disadvantage that no forced transport of the material to be treated in the reactor is organized, the existing firebed of the thermolysis reaction is destroyed and thus blockages in the reactor and slag and separate pockets of embers are produced.
Therefore, these reactors and methods do not ensure a stable and uniform process management. As a result of the instable and nonuniform process management, the supply of energy via the gasifying agent is no longer distributed in terms of quality and quantity, thus leading to partial overheating and burning and consequently to a stop of the pyrolytic process.
Since the transport flow of the material in the reactor is not forced and is partially impeded by the conveyor in the form of agitator devices (paddle or helical devices) the firebed is destroyed or separated and leads to process-cumbersome “hotspots”.
Thus, the gasifying agent escapes without flowing through the material and thus causes a thermochemical reaction stop. A continuous and stable temperature-controlled process management is not possible any longer. The process stops.
This unstable process management not only causes the stop of the entire pyrolysis process, but also local overheating and thus the distortion of the thermolysis chamber.
Regardless of the extremely fluctuating gas quality, the thermochemical reduction of the material is not completed and therefore adverse process conditions for/of subsequent arrangements are produced.
DE 199 32 822 A1 and DE 196 14 689 A1 disclose conveyor devices for reactors in the form of a conveyor screw or a transport screw. These conveyors also have the disadvantages described above.